Louise Waterhouse is re-elected and Monigue Aniel joins selectmen.
LBy Eileen M. Adams
Staff Writer

MEXICO – Incumbent Selectman Louise Waterhouse won re-election to a fourth, three-year term on the board, beating out former Selectman Ernest Robichaud.

In a three-way run for the one year remaining on former Selectmen Robert Lyons’ term, Dr. Monique Aniel won over Kent Mann and Tim Giasson with a vote of 283 to 94 and 37 respectively. Lyons, an active member of the board for many years, resigned late last year following a serious illness.

Waterhouse out polled Robichaud by a vote of 230 to 179.

Both Waterhouse and Aniel favor some form of regionalization that they say will benefit the town and the River Valley.

Waterhouse, a retired Department of Human Resources employee, supports regionalization of the three area school districts, but does not favor combining towns. She does, however, want to look into the possibility of combining purchases with neighboring towns as well as conducting further study into a possible merger of the Mexico and Dixfield police departments.

One of her major concerns is the management of the town. Although she says she firmly supports and appreciates the work Town Manager Joseph Derouche has done for the town, she says the board should look into alternate ways or a reorganization of the town’s administration. Derouche was recently diagnosed with a debilitating illness.

Aniel says she believes in many forms of regionalization while retaining the small town character of Mexico, a town she and her physician husband moved to 22 years ago. Economic diversity is crucial, she says, to the survival of the area.

She and her husband, Dr. Albert Aniel, are both physicians. They came to the United States in 1977 from Belgium after serving in other parts of the world. Aniel has served on the SAD 43 school board and on the Region 9 School of Applied Technology Board.

Although no one took out nomination papers for the two open seats on the SAD 43 Board of Directors, two new members will be sworn in next week. Jarrud Dumas and Amy Bernard, both recent graduates of Mountain Valley High School, ran successful write-in campaigns. Dumas, a Colby College graduate, received 122 votes, while Bernard, a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington, took 85 votes.

Town Clerk Penny Duguay said a few other single write-in ballots were cast.

Both Dumas and Bernard work as youth workers at Rumford Group Home.

eadams@sunjournal.com